Fake News Just Got Real President Trump

President Donald J. Trump has screamed “Fake News!” since his early campaign days. He consistently slams the media for false reports about him, his campaign squad, and his current team. Yet, many cries of fake news turn out to be more real than he will admit. His motto during the election for Hillary Clinton was “Lock Her Up!” More recently, as Clinton continues to enjoy her freedom with no clouds of indictment over her head, members of Trump’s squad are on the receiving end of indictments over the Russia probe. Fake news just got real, Mr. Trump.

Nearly every time America’s 45th president has used the term fake news, the media reports have been accurate; it has just been news he does not like. “The Donald” calls things “fake news” not because they are, in fact, false, but rather because he does not agree with them or they paint him in a bad light. That is something very different from new indictments surrounding the interference of Russia in the 2016 election when the foreign agents purposely created made-up “news” stories to drive voters away from Hillary Clinton and toward Trump. Fake news just got real.

This week alone, the former reality television star spent a great deal of time splattering the airwaves with hyperbole and half-truths. Among other claims, the President charged that “the whole Russian thing” was a “hoax” and an excuse for Democrats who are unwilling to accept that they lost the election. On Friday morning, the President tweeted:

It is now commonly agreed, after many months of COSTLY looking, that there was NO collusion between Russia and Trump. Was collusion with HC!

After a week-long stunt of battlefield smoking, Trump retreated to the White House to celebrate what looked like a week of victories for the Trump brigade. On Friday, to Trump’s surprise, fake news got real after a federal grand jury in Washington approved the first charges in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller. Currently, there are three.

At nearly every stop on Trump’s campaign trail, when Clinton’s name arose, supporters under their fearless leader would aggressively yell, “Lock Her Up!” Many will remember the Oct. 9, 2016, presidential debate when the president-elect threatened to have Clinton locked up after he became the leader of the free world. He said:

I’ll tell you what. I didn’t think I’d say this, but I’m going to say it, and I hate to say it. But if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation, because there has never been so many lies, so much deception. There has never been anything like it, and we’re going to have a special prosecutor. She has to go to jail.

Even after the election ended and Hillary conceded, many of the opposing party’s supporters seemed to be under the impression that a renewed investigation was coming. The President’s team spent so much time talking about Hillary’s alleged “criminal behavior, lies, and deception” that they forgot about the skeletons that kept peeking out of their own closet. All of a sudden, a blow came that many of his fans were not expecting; fake news just got real.

Over the past week the President, GOP members of Congress, and of course Fox News, conjured up allegations that Hillary Clinton had “colluded” with Russia. As it stands, Hillary is not facing indictment; instead, the opposing team who screamed, “Lock Her Up!” beat her to it.

On Friday, a federal grand jury issued the first indictments arising out of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible conspiring with Russia to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election. Sorry not sorry, but fake news just got real, Mr. Trump.

Opinion by Cherese Jackson (Virginia)

Sources:

CNN: Donald Trump just claimed he invented ‘fake news’Washington Post: A brief history of the ‘Lock her up!’ chant by Trump supporters against ClintonEast Idaho News: Trump attacks Hillary Clinton as charges filed in Mueller investigation